Saturday, September 5, 2026

1-2 p.m.
Center Gallery, Ancestral Forest
Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East

Ancestral Celebrations honoring Sun Ra and Louis Armstrong

Vincent ChanceyHonoring Sun Ra: Vincent Chancey, french horn
Vincent Chancey earned a respected place for himself in the world of jazz music with his remarkable ability on the French horn. He began playing professionally in the 1970s, mostly with large ensembles such as Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, David Murray Big Band, Carla Bley Big Band, and the Richard Abrams orchestra. In 2026 he celebrates his 50th year as part of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

Avreeayl RaAvreeayl Ra, drums, percussion
Avreeayl Ra is a renowned Chicago-based percussionist and master drummer who played a pivotal role in the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra during the mid-1980s. He is a lifelong pillar of the Chicago avant-garde, and a long-standing member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), having initially studied under its co-founder, Kelan Philip Cohran. He has performed and recorded with numerous jazz luminaries, including Fred Anderson, Lester Bowie, Nicole Mitchell, and Pharoah Sanders.

Sam ThousandHonoring Louis Armstrong: Sam Thousand, trumpet
Sam Thousand is an award-winning performing artist, curator, and social entrepreneur focusing on live performance, curation and artist advocacy. As a full-time artist he has toured and recorded with dozens of collaborators. He is the founding Executive Director of ChiBrations, advancing artist-centered infrastructure through programming, storytelling, and the ChiBrations App and serves as Co-Chair of the Arts Leadership Council at Arts Alliance Illinois.

Tangible Sound: Arrival to a Higher Ground
April 25 – November 8, 2026
Chicago Cultural Center, Michigan Avenue Galleries, 1st Floor East

Imagine walking inside the thunderous sound of a taiko drum or feeling enveloped by the sinuous sounds of a saxophone, cello, or bass. What if your body became part of a visual landscape of colors, textures, and movements that resonated with the bone-tingling sound vibrating in your ears?

Tangible Sound: Arrival to a Higher Ground creates a sensory and celebratory experience of jazz art forms that connect, uplift, and transform our human spirit by translating the power of music into color and movement.

Together, photographer Lauren Deutsch, filmmaker Jonathan Woods, and the Tangible Sound Collaborative created an immersive exhibition celebrating Chicago’s creative improvised music community. The exhibition is inspired by the early experimenters whose boundary-breaking practices have influenced generations of visual and sonic artists.

This exhibition is dedicated to Ancestors Timuel D. Black, whose immense impact on the spirit, art and activism in Chicago continues to propel us forward, and the legendary musician, mentor and community-builder Fred Anderson.

Lauren Deutsch is the former executive director of the Jazz Institute of Chicago and has spent the past 45 years documenting Chicago’s jazz community with her camera. She began to experiment with digital photography as a way to interpret the energy, texture, and scale of creative improvised music, with the idea of conveying the enormity of the experience and the way it regularly challenges conventional assumptions.

Jonathan Woods is an award-winning filmmaker, motion visual artist. Over the years he has dedicated himself to crafting narratives that transcend conventional mediums, utilizing light, motion, and sound to evoke emotion and provoke thought. He sees this project as an extraordinary opportunity to amplify these principles, as well as celebrate the gifted musicians who inspire this work.

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Tags: Ancestral Celebrations honoring Sun Ra and Louis Armstrong, Avreeayl Ra, Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, Jonathan Woods, Lauren Deutsch, Sam Thousand, Vincent Chancey